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How To Track Your Advertising Like A Hawk

Tired of pouring endless money into advertising? Do you wonder
which ads are "REALLY" working for the business you manage? Would
you like a bullet-proof system for capturing the results from
your advertising and marketing? Below are three concepts that
will enable you to track your advertising and marketing like a
hawk! Really, it's that simple!

Developing a tracking system: As a business
owner/executive/manager, you need an efficient way to record and
evaluate the results from your advertising and marketing
programs. To get started, you will need a "prospect card" which
includes a list of ALL the places you advertise and market your
company. This prospect card must be current and complete, so your
staff will be able to accurately track the results from each
advertising/marketing source. Your business should also have a
phone log, a summary of the daily and weekly advertising results
and a report to summarize the month. Be certain each advertising
source you are using has its own column for each report. Often,
advertising sources are bunched together in the same category or
column on the weekly or monthly recap, making it impossible to
track the performance of your advertising/marketing.

Tip From The Coach: When asking your team to provide a summary
of advertising and marketing results, have them sign and date the
form. This is a reminder that they are accountable for the timely
and accurate "source" information which is reflected on each
report.

Identifying the source: To accurately evaluate the performance
of your advertising program, begin by deleting "drive-by" as a
source on your customer card and tracking systems. In most cases,
your customers read or heard something about your company before
they came to your office or called your company. Next, have your
team design a marketing easel or a three-ring binder, which has a
sample of the advertising and marketing being done. Then, ask
your team to begin each appointment or meeting at this marketing
easel or with their three-ring binder, so they can ask each
customer if they have seen your current advertising or marketing
pieces. NOW, this is the time for your team to record this timely
information on the customer card, to accurately identify the
advertising which brought this customer to your company. And by
using this technique with every new customer served by your team,
your weekly and monthly tracking reports will now reflect a more
accurate picture of which advertising and marketing source is
most effective.

Tip From The Coach: Of course, a tracking system can also be
computerized and very powerful, but the steps/tips outlined in
the paragraph above are still the same.

Creating a file for return prospects: Wow! Isn't it great when
a return-prospect becomes a sale? Such fun! Unfortunately,
identifying the original advertising source which brought this
prospect to your business the first time is a major problem for
most companies. Often, your team will hear from a
return-prospect, "I was just here a few months ago and decided to
contact you again." But each sale that is made by your company,
which comes from a particular advertising or marketing source,
makes it easy to justify which advertising/marketing you will
continue to use. And since advertising and marketing is such a
large monthly expenditure for most businesses, isn't it important
to know what's working and what's NOT?

Tip From The Coach: Create a master file of prospect cards for
all prospects and have your team file the prospect cards from
each day into a small box by last name, sorted A-Z. Now, when
"Peter Smith" returns in three months after his first visit or
phone call and says he wants to buy your product or use service,
your team can simply go to this small box and behind "S" the
original prospect card is right there! This is an instant way for
your company to source its advertising and marketing. More
importantly, your staff will have in their hand the background of
this prospect and can create instant rapport. Instant rapport
equals higher closing ratios, a double win! Of course, a
follow-up system can also be computerized, but the steps/tips
outlined in this paragraph are still the same. Once you have
these systems in place, you can then calculate your:
cost-per-phone-call, cost for bringing a prospect to your
business and cost-per-sale! For a free analysis of your
advertising tracking forms or the results you are receiving, fax
your system/results to The Coach at 435-615-8670 and receive 20
minutes of complimentary coaching!

Author's note: Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach, is the founder of
PowerHour® a professional business coaching/recruiting
service and the author of SmartMatch Alliances?. He has spent
17,500 hours [since 1995] delivering customized training, by
telephone, in leadership, traditional/Internet marketing and
sales for fast growing sales companies and entrepreneurial
businesses worldwide. PowerHour® specializes in global
distance learning by telephone, using their state-of-the-art
conference call system for interactive and dynamic TeleForums.
Twice-monthly TeleForums link 10-100
executives/professionals/individuals who are geographically
dispersed, in a time efficient and profitable format.

PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town?Park City, Utah, at
435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit
their TeleForum website: http://www.powerhour.com. To
receive a FREE success newsletter, with subscribers in 74
countries, send an E-mail to: ernest@powerhour.com. Recent
PowerHour® articles have appeared in 4000+ business/trade
publications and websites.

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There are several ways to advertise and get the word out
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co-ops, and posting to message boards and forums related to
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Sex in Advertising: Does
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We're surrounded by advertisements that desperately compete
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inevitably drawn to images of scantily clad attractive men
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Don't Put All Your Eggs
in The Same Basket
Solution: You can protect yourself by partnering with other
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Books, Bibles and
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In the business of marketing and advertising, it used to be
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I got another one of those calls the other day..
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